A press used for joining and repairing wide flat belts has a plurality of upper and a plurality of lower traverses respectively having lower and upper traverse faces and upper and lower press platens carried on and between the traverses and having respective upper and lower platen faces respectively confronting the lower and upper traverse faces. Upright tie rods have their upper ends secured in the upper traverse and their lower ends in the lower traverse and can be tightened to move the two platens into a starting position. A belt to be pressed is engaged between the platens.
A bend-compensating element having a pair of nonparallel upper and lower surfaces is engaged between one of the platen faces and the confronting traverse face and a hydraulic actuator is normally braced between the bend-compensating element and one of the respective press and platen faces. This actuator can be expanded to move the respective platen toward the other platen.
This bend-compensating element, as defined in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,674 is shaped to conform to the bend line of the platen. This line is the curved line a straight line through the press forms when the press is at its standard operating pressure. Normally this element is formed with a curved surface shaped like the bend line, and with a planar surface, but it distorts in use to have two curved surfaces.
Thus force transmission to the press platens is fairly even, as when the press is at the standard operating pressure the bend compensator will fill the space between each bowed traverse and the respective platens which are planar. Nonetheless it has been found that even such presses typically deform somewhat in use.